Contents

Story

Star Ocean: Second Story/Evolution

"A young swordsman whose innate cowardice brought him misfortune; as a result, he became haunted by a double-headed dragon. Despite his humble personality, his sword skills are first class, and he fights using sword arts that integrate symbology with his two swords."

—STAR OCEAN: Second Evolution Official Website.

Ashton Attacks.

Ashton is first seen by the party in the Salva Mines, fighting the two-headed dragon. Since Claude and Rena can't actually help Ashton fight in the small and narrow cave, they decided to cheer him on instead. However, their cheering distracts Ashton, who turns around and tells the two of them to be quiet. At this instant, the weakened dragon attacks Ashton, but instead of hurting him, it fuses onto his back. Ashton is at first confused about where the dragon went and why Claude and Rena look so concerned, until he realizes that the dragon's heads are over his shoulders.

Ashton blames Claude and Rena for his misfortune, and the two take responsibility for his misfortune and vow to help Ashton remove the dragons. Traveling far and wide, they eventually get all the items to exorcise the dragons off Ashton's back, but when Ashton realizes that this will kill the pair, he changes his mind, claiming he wants to find a way to remove the two without actually killing them. Rena is glad that Ashton wants to take this route and decides to name the red dragon Gyoro (Creepy in Second Evolution) and the blue dragon Ururun (Weepy in Second Evolution), since they will be staying with him for some time.

Ashton and Precis on her spaceship.

Star Ocean: Blue Sphere

Two years after the initial storyline, Ashton is still living on Expel. Opera and Ernest crash land on the planet Edifice, where they then send out an SOS to Precis, living on planet Earth. Precis rounds up the gang (minus Claude and Rena, who are busy on an Earth Federation mission), Ashton being one of the first, and proceeds to rescue the two. Ashton, in this game, is now one of the main characters. He accompanies Precis on her mission to rescue Opera and Ernest, as well as to help find a cure to the mysterious illness that Claude C. Kenni contracts.

Creepy/Gyoro and Weepy/Ururun, are still very much attached to Ashton in this game. Ashton is searching for a cure still, in between training by the Linga Mountains. When Precis calls upon him to help find their missing friends, he quickly joins with no hesitation, hoping to his happiness for finally seeing Precis again after 2 years. He never accomplishes this. Ashton's Killer Moves are still very much the same, and he still equips heavy armor, as well as fighters armor.

Personality

A luckless mercenary, Ashton is skilled at sewing and Symbological Fencing, a melding between Symbology and fencing. He likes good luck charms - especially after being possessed by Creepy/Gyoro and Weepy/Ururun - and girls who are nice and tidy, having pure thoughts. He bears a dislike for lotteries, fortune-telling, and being possessed further, as Ashton is a man of little luck.

Battle

Ashton is a Symbological Swordsman, utilizing twin short-swords in conjunction with Symbology to imbue himself and/or his swords with magical power. He can also equip some of the post-game bonus dungeon swords that come as a single blade (but his battle animations will still show two). He can equip heavy armor, as well as all the armor for fighters. Ashton also has two special accessories that only he can equip; the Salamander Helmet (acquired from a PA in Arlia), and Sacknoth's Helmet (purchased in the Fake Gallery).

He is one of the most powerful, purely physical attack characters in the game, alongside Claude, Dias, and Welch. His normal attack is the fastest in the game, with minimal lag and great range. His running speed, however, is one of the slowest, tied with Opera and the mage characters. His other stats, however, are very balanced, with above average stats once he reaches higher levels.

Ashton's Special Arts are all very potent, however most of them are also extremely slow and situational, requiring timing and proper assistance from the party members in order to unleash their full potential. He is the only melee fighter that can learn a secret Special Art, Tri-Ace, in the Cave of Trials. Among his notable Arts are Vanishing Swords, which will cause Ashton to teleport to his opponent no matter how far he is; Hurricane Slash, which can easily set up to combos with other characters, as well connecting perfectly with his Sword Dance; Dragon Breath, which can be massively powerful if it traps opponents at the edges of the battlefield; and the aforementioned Tri-Ace, which is a full-screen Art that will stop time, like a spell.

In the PSX version, Ashton is, without question, the best character to kill the two superbosses (Iseria Queen and Indalecio Unlimited). Once the player has the the Angel Armband and sufficient HIT (which can be achieved with a sufficient level, the Foot Symbol or Celine's spell buff); the Levantine Sword is optional. With his very fast normal attacks, he can keep the bosses permenantly stun-locked, meaning he can keep his HP at 1 to bring out the full power of the Levantine. The stun-locking is even easier if he has Rena or Celine casting quick but weak spells to keep them in hitstun.

Trivia

If Ashton is recruited, it becomes impossible to recruit Opera Vectra, and by extension, Ernest Raviede. Thus, Ashton is the only character in the game to bar recruitment to 2 characters.

As an allusion to his bad lucky, gameplay-wise Ashton's LUC stat will not increase with level ups; he has a fixed 18 LUC. He has the lowest natural stat in the game. The only way to increase his LUC is equippinga him with accessories that increase that stat.

Ashton has a strange obsession with barrels that is expanded on in the anime Star Ocean EX.

In Star Ocean EX, when Gyoro and Ururun possess and speak through Ashton, his eyes change colors depending on who is possessing him (red eyes for Gyoro and blue eyes for Ururun).

Ashton's favorite instrument is the Piano, and his favorite food is Hamburger.

Ashton is one of three characters who has a "special" ending (the other two are Celine and Opera). To get his special ending, you have to have chosen Rena as your main character and participate in a series of PA's in Harley involving the sickly girl Eleanor.

Ashton can give Precis her Super Hologram technique in a PA in Fun City. Therefore, it is ideal that you recruit Ashton if you plan on recruiting Precis, and his 'Sword Dance' Killer Move must be available otherwise you cannot view this PA without it. He also needs 8+ FP towards Precis and vice versa.

In the original Second Story, Asthon shares his Japanese voice actor with Noel Chandler.

Ururun is a play on words, in which Ururu means "that droopy look in your eyes just before crying", which is why Ururun looks the way he does. The remake instead localizes it as "Weepy".

In a conversation in Arias before facing Crossel, Maria Traydor will mention the two-headed dragon on Expel, in reference to Ashton's dragons. It is debatable if this is a reference to before Ashton was possessed, or a perhaps him successfully exorcising them from himself.

Along with Leon and Precis, Ashton also has more than one victory animation; one of which is his normal victory pose with his swords, and another where he has the same pose, though with Gyoro and Ururun comically chewing on his head.

Albel Nox's 4P costume has Albel with a tattoo of two dragons on his chest that greatly resemble Gyoro/Creepy and Ururun/Weepy.

Ashton's last Killer Move, Tri-Ace can only be found in the Cave of Trials, and it's a homage to the company. It's the only Killer Move that stops time in battle and hits the whole screen, like a spell.

Despite having brown-hair, Asthon's sprite in both versions of Star Ocean 2 depict him with jet-black hair.

Gallery

Ashton as he appears in Star Ocean: The Second Story

Ashton as he appears in Star Ocean: Second Evolution

Ashton as he appears in Star Ocean: Blue Sphere

Ashton as he appears in the mobile phone version of Star Ocean: Blue Sphere.